The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1887-06-03

Of thcm II you have seen Al many killed a.
have you would not have a. many weak
Ideas ns you now have.n
You never felt like that. When a soldiers
knapsack wns found after his death in the
American war there. was generally careful
package containing a. Bible, q few photo
graphs and letters from home On the other
hand tens Of thousands OF homes waited for
news. Parents saying; "Twenty thousand
killed! ] wonder II our boy was among
them.7 Painting dead away In post offices
and telegraph stations Both the ears of
God filed with the sobs and agonies Of kindred
waiting fornews, or dropping under the All.
nounceineit OF bad news. Speak, swamps of
the Chickahominy, and midnight lagoons,
and fire RATS OF the Mississippi, and Gunboats
before Vicksburg, and woods Of Antietam,
and tell to all tho mountains and valleys and
rivers and lakes Of north and south, jcremiads
a war times that have never been syllaLled!
Beside that domestic perturbation aud
inconsistencies OF those days put the sweet do
mesticity Of to-day. The only camp fire you
now ever sit at is the one kindled in stove
or furnace or hearth. Instead OF half ration
Of salt pork, repast luxuriant because par
taken of by loving family circle and in secret
condolences. Oh, now see who those letters
were for, the letters you, the young soldier,
took 30 long in your tent to WRITE and that
you were SO particular to put in the mail
without any one seeing you lest you be teased
by your comrades God spared you to get
back, and though the old people have gone
you have home Of your own construction,
and You often contrast those awful absences
and filial and brotherly and loverly heart
breaks with your present residence, which Is
the dearest place you will find this side of
heaven. The place where your children were
born is the place where you want to die. To
write the figures of 1862 / set up four crystals,
crystals Of tears To write the figures Of 1887
! stand up four members Of your household,
figures Of rosy cheeks and haxen hair, II I can
get them to stand still long enough.
Contrast also the religious opportunities of
twenty years ago with now. Often on the
march from Sunday morn till night, or COM
manded by officers who considered the name
Of God and Christ Of no use except to swear
by. Sometimes the drumhead the pulpit and
you standing In heat or cold, all the surround
ings Of military life having tendency to
make you reckless. No privacy for prayer
or Bible reading. No sound Of church bells.
Sabbaths spent far away from the place where
you were brought up. Now, the choicest
sanctuaries, easy pew, all Christian surround
ings, the air full Of God and Christ, and
heaven and doxology. Three mountains
lifting themselves into the holy hght-Mount
Sinai laundering its law. Mount Calvary
pleading the sacrifice. Mount Pisgah display
ing the promised land.
Contrast Of national condition: 1862, spend.
ing money by the millions in devastation Of
property and life; 1887, the finances SO recon-
structed that all the stock gamblers of Wall
street combined cannot make national
panic; 1862, surgeons Of the land setting
broken bones and amputating gangrened
limbs and studying gunshot fractures and in
venting easy ambulances for the wounded
and dying; 1887, surgeons giving their atlen-
tons to those in casualty of agriculture, of
commerce or mechanical life, the rushing of
the ambulance through our streets, not sug
costing battle, but quick relief of some one
fallen in peaceful industries; 1862, 81, OO0, 600
Inhabitants in this land; 1887 55,OOO,O 600:
1862 wheat, about $4,000, 900 bushels; 1887,
the wheat will be about 500, OOO, 900 bushels;
1862 Pacific coast five weeks from the Allan
tic; 1887, for three reasons, Union Pacific,
Southern Pacific and Northern Pacific, only
seven days across. Look at the long line of
churches, universities, asylulns and houses
with which, during the last few years. tits
land has been decorated.
living soldiers of the north and south, take
new and special ordination at this season of
the year, to garland the sepulchers of your
fallen comrades. Nothing is too good for
their memories Turn all the private tombs
and the national cemeteries into gardens Ye
dead Of Malvern Hill and Cold Harbor au,.
Murfreesboro and Manassas Junction and
Cumberland Gap and field hospital, receive
these floral offerings of the living soldiers
But they shall come again, all the dead
troops. We sometimes talk about earthly
military reviews, such as took place in Paris
in the time of Marshal Ney, in London in the
time Of Wellington and in our own land, but
what tame things compared with the final re-
view, when all the armies of the ages shall
pass for divine and angelic inspection. st.
John says the armies of heaven ride on white
horses, and don't know but many of the old
cavalry horses of earthly II battle, that
were wounded ana worn out in SER
vice, may have resurrection It would
be only fair that, raised up and ennobled,
they would be resurrected for the grand
review of the judgment day. 1t would not
take any more power to reconstruct their
bodies than to reconstruct ours, and I should
be very glad to see them among the white
horses Of apocalyptic vision. Hank to the
trumpet blast, the reveille of the lust judy
ment They come up. All the armies of all
lands and all centuries, on which ever side
they fought, whether for freedom or despot-
ism, for the right or the wrong They GOMEZ
They come! Darius and Cyrus, and Sennach-
crib, and Joshua, and David, leading forth
the armies of scriptural times; Hannibal and
Hamilcar leading forth the armies of the
Carthaginians; Victor Emmanuel and Carl
baldi leading on the armies of the Italians:
Tamerlane and Ghengis Khan followed by the |
armies of Asia; Gustavus Adolphus, and
Ptolemy Phiopater, and Xerxes, and Alex
ander, and Semiramis, and Washington, lead
ing battalion after battalion. The dead
American armies of 1776 and 1912, and
l 100000 of northern and southern dead
in our civil war. They come up. They
pass on in review The 6,0OO,OOO fallen |